Tracks Launch New Strategy For Approval Of Slot Machines

December 3, 2003|By Mark Hollis Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — A year after the Florida Supreme Court rejected a proposal to allow slot machines at dog and horse tracks and jai-alai frontons, a coalition of South Florida tracks has returned to the court looking for another chance to ask voters to allow slot machines at their sites in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The high court began deliberations Tuesday about whether a proposed state constitutional amendment by Floridians for a Level Playing Field qualifies for the statewide ballot in November.

Backed financially by casino companies, the coalition's newest effort is simpler than its first proposal, which the Supreme Court struck down because it failed the requirement that citizen-proposed initiatives deal with a single subject. That proposal combined slot machines with a requirement that gambling revenues be taxed. The court said that was confusing and improper.

The new proposal would ask voters statewide to allow the county governments of Miami-Dade and Broward to conduct local elections that could legalize slot machines at seven existing pari-mutuels.

The Legislature would be authorized -- but not required -- to levy taxes on the machines. But any tax revenue would have to go to public education under the proposal.

Opponents, including a statewide group of anti-casino interests, have attacked the initiative as a sleazy scheme because it tries to persuade voters who don't live in South Florida to vote for slot machines on the theory that they might receive such benefits as better school funding, but without any of the detriments of expanded gambling.

"The reason that funding for education is chosen is only to encourage those who would otherwise be opposed to the expansion of gambling to vote for this," Mark Herron, an attorney for a coalition of opposition groups, told justices.

Herron also blasted the plan as an attempt to sidestep a state constitutional ban on lotteries other than the state-run lottery.

But Stephen Grimes, a former state Supreme Court justice and an attorney for Floridians for a Level Playing Field, argued that it should be obvious to most people that slot machines are not the same as lotteries.

Just the same, South Florida's ailing pari-mutuel industry has long touted video lottery terminals as its touch-screen savior. Owners of those betting centers maintain that VLTs would funnel sorely needed revenue. Studies commissioned by several pari-mutuels estimate VLTs at tracks and frontons could generate about $1.5 billion a year for the state's main education fund.

The industry has made several attempts in recent years to get legislative authorization for video lottery, but Gov. Jeb Bush has thwarted them.

Daniel Adkins, vice president of the Hollywood Greyhound Track and the chairman of the coalition backing the slot machine plan, said it's pointless to talk about whether Florida ought to allow slots. They're already here by the thousands, he said, on the day-cruise casino boats and Indian reservations, and they're paying nothing in taxes.

Mark Hollis can be reached at mhollis@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.